This document describes how Native Americans used various natural resources from their environment. Quahog shells were used for digging, scraping ashes, and making bowls and tools. Small fish bones were used for sewing needles and fish were eaten or used in stews. Horseshoe crab tails and legs were used for sewing and as tools while also being used as fertilizer. Seals provided meat, fat, protein and warm coats; their bones were used for tools. Cattails provided food, clothing material, and materials for tools and mats. Seaweed was used for thickening soups and as fertilizer. Seagulls were eaten and their feathers used for decoration and on tools and arrows. Whelks provided food and

1. Quahogs (clams)

2. Quahogs (clams)
Delicious in stews or steamed
food √ in a big pit.
They used Quahog shells for digging in the
gardens and to scrap out the burnt ashes
from a dugout canoe. The shells also made
tools √ good bowls.They also used a whole shell
like tweezers to pluck out their hair one by
one for special hairstyles.
Quahog made the best wampum
beads. They liked it for the beautiful
wampum √ purple sections and because it was
hard.

3. Fish

4. Fish
They smoked fish to make it last for
the winter or just cooked it over the
food √ fire and ate it then. They would also
add it to stews.
Small fish bones were very good for
tools √ needles for careful sewing like
stitching moccasins together.
They would place a fish into each
mound with the seeds for corn, beans,
fertilizer √ and squash (the “Three Sisters”) to
fertilizes them and help them grow.

5. Horseshoe Crab

6. Horseshoe Crab
They would use the tail for
sewing. It would punch holes
tools √ in leather. They would also use
it for the point of a fishing
spear.
They would put the legs and
insides of the crab into the
fertilizer √ gardens to help the “Three
Sisters” grow.

7. Seals

8. Seals
They got a lot of meat from seals. It
was a good source of fat and
food √ protein and it could feed a lot of
people.
They would take the skin off
clothing √ the seal and make it into a
warm winter fur coat.
They would use the seal bones
tools √ for lots of tools.

9. Cattails

10. Cattail
They ate the roots and the
food √ tubers from the plant, like a
potato.
They could use the fluffy seed
clothing √ heads for insulation in winter
clothes.
The straight cattail stalks were woven
into mats to cover the wigwams in the
tools √ summer. They also used the leaves to
weave baskets and make rope.

11. Seaweed

12. Seaweed
They used some seaweed
food √ to thicken soups and
stews.
They used seaweed as
fertilizer because it rotted
fertilizer √ into the ground and made
compost.

13. Seagulls

14. Seagulls
Seagulls were eaten for their
food √ meat.
They used the feathers for
clothing √ decoration, especially in their
hairstyles.
The beak could be used as a
scraper, the wings could be a fan,
tools √ and the feathers were used on
arrows to help them fly straight.

15. Whelk

16. Whelk
They could get delicious meat
food √ from big whelks.
The shells were used to make tools
tools √ like scrappers, knives, or for making
designs in pottery.
Whelk was good for making
wampum √ white pieces of wampum.